Poppin' Up!!

Our new pride and joy: A 1999 Coleman Pop Up Camper in Excellent condition!!

We had been looking and looking for the perfect camper for us, and low and behold, we finally found it! We are pretty smitten, and extremely excited for all of the camping adventures in our future!

Here we are just arriving at Baker Park for our maiden camping voyage a few weekends back.

Hayden and Erica were UBER excited about the new camper, and didn't want to go outside to play at all. They wanted to play in their new sleeping bags, jump on all the beds, look in all the drawers, etc.

Here I am cooking our first meal in the camper: Pasta with red sauce, and garlic bread

Mmmmm...Yummy pasta, Mom!! :)

And finally enjoying some time by the campfire in the great outdoors....
Bliss!

A Hair Cut for E.Rae

Erica decided it was time to get her hair cut, so we headed to the local Fantastic Sam's, as I am still too nervous to cut it on my own!! This was actually her second official cut, but since I forgot to photo document the first cut, I figured I had better get this one on my camera!!

She got about 3 1/2 inches cut off, and some layers cut into it to frame her little face.
It turned out so cute, if I do say so myself. :)

I just can't get over what a big girl she looks like with her new cut! And SOOOooo blonde. Wow, I can hardly believe that she was born with black, curly hair 3 years ago!

Summer Fishing with Papa

A few Thursday's back, Papa took Hayden out to Lake Minnetonka for some action packed fishing. Here they are with their keepers: two nice sized Bass. Can't you just see the pride in both of their faces?! :)

Papa Sharpe continues to alternate taking H & E out for adventures with him every Thursday. What a gift for all involved to spend this quality time together. It started when Hayden was 1 year old, and has continued every week since then. Hayden is already getting pretty sad that when he starts Kindergarten in the fall, he will have to give up his special days with Papa.

Just in time, though, for baby #3 to join in the fun, I guess!!

"Fresh Lemonade...just 50 cents!"

So, have I mentioned how much we LOVE our new neighbors and neighborhood?

Memorial Day was just another reason why we love it here so much. A few days earlier we had made plans with the Thorman's (two doors down to the East) to have our first lemonade stand on the corner of our lot--since we have prime location for walking, biking, and car traffic..aka..potential customers! :)

Nanette and her girls, Taylor and Kendall made the lemonade & cute signs, and we provided the space in which to set up shop and lounge.

Above: Our first customers, on bikes
Below: Hayden and Taylor, testing the lemonade--the true first customers

Above: Nanette and the girls all helping this gentlemen
Below: Blowing off some steam between customers. Just look at the joy on their faces.... I love this photo!!

And finally some photos of our whole crew, from afar. It was a lovely, lovely day with beautiful sunshine....and best of all, time with great friends.

25 weeks

As promised, a few photos of my growing buddha!
Here I am at 25 weeks gestation, and growing rapidly at this point.
Baby is moving like crazy, and Jonathan & the kids have felt he or she moving in there now, as well.

I stopped throwing up about a week ago, and am hoping to be over the morning sickness portion of this pregnancy now.....please, pretty please, with sugar on top???

Other than that, we are just getting more and more excited everyday to meet this little one, and excited that we only have a little over 3 months to go!

Memorial Weekend 2009

Memorial weekend came and went, and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the beautiful, glorious weather. We started out the weekend just hanging out at home, running errands, getting groceries, and doing some yard work.

Sunday morning started early with a Formula One race party & breakfast at our neighbor's house at 7:30am. It was a ball, and the food was great--Ummm...homemade waffles! From there we immediately jumped in the car and headed to Taylor's Falls for a day of fun with the Smith's. They were all camping there in their RV's for the weekend, so we just decided to go spend the day with them.

We had so much fun. The kids went swimming twice in the pool at the campground, we went hiking at the State Park right along the St. Croix river, we ate, we played, we laughed, we got too much sun, and we finished off the evening with a campfire and s'mores. A perfect day if you ask me!!

Above: Nana Smith (aka...Bubba) and all of the kids (excluding Cole)
Below: Three generations of Rae's; Erica Rae, Donna Rae & Tammie Rae

Below: A portion of our group on the Pot Hole Hike
Notice we are all wearing flip-flops....not the best choice in footwear for a hike on jagged rocks. Would rethink that one if we do this hike again! :)

Below: Erica and Riley, cute as can be, about to squeeze between some rocks.

Finally, our group just relaxing at the end of the hike, along the beautiful St. Croix River.
We realized once we got to the end that we only had one 1/2 full bottle of water between the 12 of us. It didn't go very far......

Our growing family:

AHHhhhhhh....FINALLY a drinking fountain:

The end of our perfect day:

Baby Sharpe #3

Jon and I went in for my 20 week ultrasound today....I know, can you believe I am
already half way through this pregnancy! We are over the moon excited that our baby
looks perfect and healthy on ultrasound. Heart, brain, face, spine, kidneys, extremities, stomach, diaphragm, etc...all checked out as completely normal.

We resisted the urge to find out the sex this go round, and are really
excited that we didn't. It will be a totally new experience for us to go into this
whole labor and delivery without knowing whether we will be coming home with a
baby boy or girl. The ultrasound tech knows, but had us look away while she took a peek.

Baby was measuring slightly over 20 weeks gestation, with an estimated weight of 14 oz,
and an official due date of September 8th, 2009.

Now just 19+ weeks to go!!

Look at those cute little tootsie's! :)